Leather vise jaws - glue, trimming

[Jay Pique]

I took a look through Old Forge Hardware this past weekend and picked up a piece of hide to line my vise jaws. The tag says "7/8 oz. natural V-Cut Shoulder", and this stuff is about 1/8" thick and pretty stiff. It's exactly what I was thinking of, but hadn't gotten around to looking for it. It's amazing what you can find in that store - it's worth stopping in if you're in the area.

IAE, I'm wondering what adhesive to use to laminate them to the hard maple jaws. My inital thought was to use contact cement, in case I ever wanted to remove it. But I don't want to have to worry about creep, so I'm thinking of something a little stronger. Do you think that plain old yellow glue would hold? I did a quick google and saw a recommendation for wallpaper glue, but that was to hold desktop leather. Maybe it would work for this too...

My plan is to leave the leather a little big and then trim it flush with a router after it's glued. Sound reasonable?

Thanks. JP

[Just Wondering]

Go to your local shoe repair and have them fill up a 4 oz. jar of the glue they use to resole shoes with. Shouldn't cost more than about a buck, and it will hold the leather to the wood. You'll need to "rough up" both surfaces, then apply like you would contact cement.

[RicodJour]

I'm not sure what would be creeping since there's really no load other than every once in a while a huge force pushes it into closer contact. Leather workers commonly use Barge Cement -

My plan is to leave the leather a little big and then trim it flush

Trim it with a razor knife. Save the art work for the work pieces!

R

[J T]

Tue, Oct 16, 2007, 4:39pm (EDT-3) [e-mail] (Jay=A0Pique) doth wonder: I took a look through Old Forge Hardware this past weekend and picked up a piece of hide to line my vise jaws. I'm wondering what adhesive to use

Obviously hide glue.

I'da just cut up an old pair of boots. You could just overlap the piece, and tack to the edges of the wood. What would Roy do?

JOAT "I'm an Igor, thur. We don't athk quethtionth." "Really? Why not?" "I don't know, thur. I didn't athk."

[Dave W]

I glued my leather strop to a piece of wood ten years ago using yellow glue and it has worked out very well. Dave

[Andy Dingley]

Actually hide doesn't work for this - too brittle. Sticks well though. A better choice is rabbit skin glue - just like hide glue, but more flexible. It's used in book-binding.

I'd use contact cement though. Evo-stik 528, works fine for all such things, doesn't creep either.

If I had PU glue (a PU solvent, like Barge Cement, Shoe Goo etc., not the isocyanates) handy, then I might use that. However PU is hard to obtain and very difficult to store. Every time I want some I find mine has set solid.

[Ferd Farkel]

Did same, 25 years ago. Hasn't crept, still pulls a razor edge on my bench knives.

[Andy]

Interesting - I've driven by several times but never stopped. I'll have to check it out sometime!

If you're near Syracuse and you need more leather, there's a Tandy Leather store on S. Salina st. I've been looking for leather for a strop or wheel for sharpening, and Tandy's name keeps coming up as a popular online retailer, and they apparently have scraps appropriate for this type of thing. I just found out about this local store, so I haven't been there yet, but it sounds like it has potential. I should pick up some thick scraps for vise jaws too - thanks for the idea. Andy